


run with me

by perilousgard



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, cause korra would make a badass gangster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 06:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1458865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perilousgard/pseuds/perilousgard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sound of police sirens wailing cuts through the summer air, still far enough away that Korra's legs don't jerk into motion, but Mako's hands stiffen on her hips. Korra leans in close and nips at the soft skin of his neck.</p><p>"Come with me," she sighs against him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	run with me

**Author's Note:**

> there was a time when i was obsessed with this AU.

The night is hot thick smog rolling down the streets where the buildings lean towards one another like they're sharing secrets, every streetlamp a dull burn of light. It's quiet and still, the sky the dark brown of leather but slowly bleeding through to inky black. Sweat is dripping down the back of Korra's neck, down under the back of her dark blue coat as she makes her way down the alley, nothing but a soft shadow in a city that still bursts with light and sound, somewhere. This is the part of town where all the blue-collar workers sleep; they won't stay up this late because it's only a few hours until they need to be back in the factories and quarries and docks.

 

The man she's after would be sleeping now, a warm heartbeat in wait beneath cool sheets. He is a blacksmith, capable of wielding a sword, but caught unawares, he would be easy enough prey.

 

She feels the knife strapped to her leg and thinks, _I'm gonna give him a fighting chance._

 

As the new leader of the Red Monsoons, she's at liberty to change their policies if she wants.

 

Korra is glad for the oily cover of night when she hears a sound like a loose pebble being skipped across the ground, and startles. Her eyes try to peel away the layers of darkness, searching for the source of the sound, but there's nothing; she's absolutely sure. Probably just a cat, poking through the garbage for a meal. Again she starts to move, but her heart jumps up into her throat and lodges there when a hand suddenly wraps around her waist.

 

Her hands come up against a hard chest and she automatically starts to slide them up, to hook around the man's neck and _snap_ in the exact motion she knows will break it, but all the breath leaves her body when she sees amber eyes like two burning embers in the dark.

 

"Mako," she breathes out, her hands twining themselves around him in an embrace instead. She presses her ear against his chest, calming herself for a moment with the rhythmic _tha-thump_ of his heartbeat, before lifting the Noh mask off her face and pulling back to look at him. It's been _weeks_ since she's seen him. "Where have you been? I started to think that you - " _Were tired of me, were done using me, were thinking about turning me in._

 

"We don't have a lot of time," he whispers, his hands firm against her lower back, and she imagines it's how much he's missed her that's making them tremble. Their bodies are close, nearly touching, and she feels the heat between them, a heat that absurdly reminds her of his hands tangled in her hair, his lips on her breasts, the dense flare of arousal between her legs as he pushes into her, breaths mingling hitching sighing for one another -

 

She shakes her head like she's trying to clear away fog.

 

"What's going on?" she asks, brushing her hands against the soft hair at the back of his neck. Each word brushes against his lips; if she leans in just a fraction more she can kiss him.

 

"The police were tipped off about your hit tonight," he murmurs.

 

Her heart stutters back down into the bottom of her chest. "There's no way -"

 

"You have a traitor in your group."

 

Korra curses beneath her breath. "It's Kai, isn't it? I knew he was nothing but a little bitch - "

 

"There's no time," Mako repeats, smoothing a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. "They'll be here any minute. You need to run."

 

"Who tipped you off?"

 

"Does it matter? I barely got here in time to warn you. Korra, they're coming _now."_

 

She has no reason to doubt him. He's never lied to her, even after seeing her with blood on her hands, even after stumbling upon the Triad headquarters in the underbelly of the city, even after she let him into her bed. There are parts of her that hate him for that, because he's not Triad and he can put her away any time he likes; he has all the evidence he could ever need. But he _won't_ , and Korra knows to the depths of her soul that he won't, _ever,_ and it's frightening and infuriating and something she thinks might be love. But the flavor of that word is unfamiliar on her tongue, and she only allows herself to savor it when she's alone in her room with the moon shining full through her window.

 

The sound of police sirens wailing cuts through the summer air, still far enough away that Korra's legs don't jerk into motion, but Mako's hands stiffen on her hips. Korra leans in close and nips at the soft skin of his neck.

 

"Come with me," she sighs against him.

 

"What?" He doesn't sound completely surprised, which makes her smile.

 

"Come with me." Now she whispers the words against his ear, a siren call, the beckoning of his soul to hers. "You keep risking your life for me, you keep coming back when I think you've finally gone. Why?"

 

"Do you want me to go?" He skims his lips across her forehead, and she can feel him breathing in the scent of her hair.

 

"No. I want you to stay," she says, curling her fingers into the front of his uniform. Run with me, city boy."

 

He breathes out, soft and slow, and she imagines every instinct he has scattering with that breath, drifting away like flower petals in the wind, left to float on the surface of the earth. His hand closes around hers, and she sees the beginning of a smile on his lips.

 

"We'll get lost," he says, pulling her quickly down the alleyway, back to where he's parked his bike against the side of an abandoned appliance store.

 

"Yes," she answers, already feeling giddy, a Triad member and a hardened killer but also a girl in love.

 

He swings his leg over the bike and she climbs up behind him, wrapping both arms around his waist, pressing her lips against the back of his neck. Mako starts up the bike and it roars like a tigerdillo, spewing out black smoke into the hazy street, drowning now in the sounds of the sirens. They take off and Korra smiles, because their hearts both beat to the music of danger, they've both lived through it together, and with him by her side she feels invincible, a sword forged of unbreakable steel, hardened by stone and fire.


End file.
